This invention relates to movable structures, and is more particularly directed to a portable bleachers, grandstand, or platform arranged in tiers, of the type designed to permit the positioning of persons so that those persons can be clearly seen by another person, such as a photographer, or so that the persons present on the grandstand can have a broad and unobstructed field of view, for example, for observing a sports or entertainment event.
Stone tiers of seats have been in existence since the days of Antiquity; the manner of building grandstands using scaffolding techniques has become known in more modern times. Modern-day photographers have taken to the familiar practice of positioning persons, at weddings, for example, or wooden tiers or benches that can easily be transported; unfortunately the resulting lack of safety resulting from this practice has also become all too familiar.
In particular, French Pat. No. 2,274,755 (McNeal), U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,366 (Wenger), U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,531 (Tones), and West German Pat. No. 804,129 (Priess) disclose portable grandstand devices more specifically designed to hold individuals so that they can witness an event: Some of these devices have two groups of tiers, one of which unfolds about a horizontal axis to bring the tiers into position for use, the tiers of this group fitting into those of the first group while in a transport position. Although these devices are quite practical and advantageous as regards setting them up, if we compare them with grandstands erected on-site, for example by use of scaffolding, they have a disadvantageous lack of seating capacity for the total size of the device.